Russia's Luna 25 launch likely to be postponed to 2023 after ESA's boycott: Report

Russia’s Luna 25 mission, which was targeted for launch in September end of this year, is likely to launch no earlier than 2023. According to TASS, this delay would result from soft-landing device of mission, which failed to meet requirements during recent tests. "In order to implement eir of options, a launch delay will be required until 2023 at earliest", TASS reported, citing one of its sources. 

failure is related to an instrument named Doppler speed and distance sensor, which has been developed by Russian government-owned Rostech State Corporation. It underperformed while taking measurements during tests conducted in May and June this year. 

Notably, Luna 25 was being developed by Russian space agency, Roscosmos, in collaboration with European Space Agency (ESA). However, ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict prompted latter to suspend mission from its end. Under this mission, Europe was supposed to develop a navigation camera called PILOT-D for Russian autonomous lander. However, ESA's exit has now me Roscosmos work for same. 

ESA announced in mid-April that it is also suspending Luna 26 and Luna 27 which would have followed former's predecessor. Meanwhile, anomaly in landing device suggests only an 80% probability of a successful landing on lunar surface, which calls for remodelling of eir device or landing plan. It is worth noting, however, that no official confirmation over postponement of launch has been me as research equipment has successfully passed tests. 

Luna 25, 26 and 27

Although Luna 25 has been suspended from Europe's end, Roscosmos is still working to carry out mission on its own. Earlier, ESA also terminated joint ExoMars mission, following which Roscosmos' now-retired chief Dmitry Rogozin said that Russia could separately launch Mars mission. ExoMars involved sending a European rover inside a Russian lander and launch was targeted in September this year.

As for lunar missions, Luna 25 is aimed at exploring Boguslavsky crater located on  lunar south pole. After Luna 25, two parties h agreed on Luna 26 and 27 which were targeted for launch two and three years from now, respectively. Luna 26 involves installing an orbiter into lunar orbit for remote scientific measurements and as a possible communications relay for next lander mission, Luna 27, meant to study soil composition of Moon's South pole.